Problem w/ iMac

My aunt's iMac (1ghz G4) won't boot up. I tried to get it to boot from the tiger install disk and it made me go through the setup, which is fine. I decided to do archive and install. It went through its install process then after a while, I came back in and noticed it said Please Try Install Again. Hmmm...

so, I did. This time, I choose Upgrade. Same thing. Im planning on just hooking it up in target mode to my G5 and transferring her files over so I can do a fresh Erase and Install on her machine.

I did notice it is having a hard time finding the startup disk when it boots up. It never gets past the spinning circle screen which makes me wonder.

when you boot, hold down the option key, this should take you to a boot menu screen. IF this comes up choose to boot from the HD and once you are in the OS, tell it to boot from the local HD. If you don't get the option to boot from the HD after holding down the option key, then I have no idea what could be causing that. Either way, I would back up those files ASAP regardless what what's going on. If you can back up those files, try the erase and install option. If that doesn't work let me know.

when you boot, hold down the option key, this should take you to a boot menu screen. IF this comes up choose to boot from the HD and once you are in the OS, tell it to boot from the local HD. If you don't get the option to boot from the HD after holding down the option key, then I have no idea what could be causing that. Either way, I would back up those files ASAP regardless what what's going on. If you can back up those files, try the erase and install option. If that doesn't work let me know.

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cool, i'll try that next. Im about to back up the files after I get some deleted. Thanks

scan the disk with any utilities you have available. believe it or not, both times I thought my drives had failed due to power outages, they ended up being simple permissions corruptions. wish I had known that earlier, but there ya go. YMMV.